A Brief History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod: Part 1

paid for? Another controversy plaguing the Synod was the practice of Absolution. To us it may not seem a big deal, since it is an integral part of our liturgy. There is a wholesale absolution in the body of our Common Service. Some of our congregations also have individual absolution. In 1861 Prof. Laur Larsen presented an essay on the doctrine of Absolution. The response to the essay was strong. Some felt that the use of the word "impartation" went too far. They contended that the unbeliever did not receive this absolution because of his/her unbelief. Though satisfactorily settled within the Synod, the Synod was attacked by the Augustana Synod and the Norwegian-Danish Conference as being "un-Lutheran." Agreement existed on the effects, but not on the essence of absolution. The opponents followed a synergistic path that employed the aliquid in homine (something in man) principle. When absolution is only valid because of faith, then it looks to something within man. Then absolution and forgiveness are no longer a free gift from God. It is ironic that these same groups would one day unite without having settled the matter.14

Perhaps the most devastating and divisive controversy came from a student of Dr. C. F. W. Walther who would eventually call his following the "Anti-Missourian Brotherhood." F. A. Schmidt was a brilliant man who took catechism instruction from Walther. Dr. Schmidt had learned Norwegian and became a professor in the seminary of the Norwegian Synod. Among the seminarians he found willing ears in his attacks on the paper delivered to the Western District in 1877. Schmidt called the Missourians and their Norwegian supporters "Calvinists." But it was F. A. Schmidt who preached Calvinistic teachings. Simply put, Schmidt taught that God saw which people would believe and thus that is why some are saved and not others. Again, it points to something within man. Outside of the Norwegian Synod little harm was done. Yes, the Ohio Synod eventually left the Synodical Conference in support of Schmidt. But the member synods themselves did not suffer divisions. The situation was different in the Norwegian Synod.

The first division occured among the seminary faculty. Profs. H. G. Stub and Johannes Ylvisaker sought to correct their brother professor. This failed and politics soon entered the picture. Schmidt sought to have his views expressed and debated at conferences. The synod responded that neither the pastors nor the laity were prepared

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